Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:11 am  

The Hive's appeal against the order to remove / radically amend the floodlights and West Stand
has been accepted and starts on June 10th. It is expected to run for 3 days. The timescales suggest to me it's unlikely any enforcement action would occur this RL season.

Re: Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 7:37 am  

so what does this actually mean?

Re: Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:00 am  

The Hive is currently subject to a planning order to alter the West Stand (within 6 months) and floodlights (within 3 months) so that they match the plans that were granted planning permission as the Council believe they currently don't. (Basically they think the stand is too big and floodlights too tall according to the local press.)

The Hive have been granted permission to appeal this order which means the clock stops ticking on the enforcement order until the appeal is heard.

Worst case scenario for The Hive is they may have to remove the current floodlights and amend the stand.

Re: Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:06 am  

I know the newspaper article you have read and it's rubbish. The appeal against the Floodlights and West stand was accepted last October.

What happened last week is that the Hive appealed against the refusal of planning for work not yet done ( Rear extension to the West Stand and replacing North terrace with the seated stand from Underhill ) and the Planning Inspectorate have agreed to hear this as part of the hearing in June.

The timescales quoted are from last October and the only reason the Enforcement notice hasn't been carried out is because of the outstanding Appeal. The Planning Inspectorate will decide what happens in June, the decision could be anything from immediate removal of stand + lights (Unlikely) to full permission and award of costs to the Hive (Also Unlikely).

Re: Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:22 am  

Halfdan of t'wide embrace wrote:

The Hive is currently subject to a planning order to alter the West Stand (within 6 months) and floodlights (within 3 months) so that they match the plans that were granted planning permission as the Council believe they currently don't. (Basically they think the stand is too big and floodlights too tall according to the local press.)

The Hive have been granted permission to appeal this order which means the clock stops ticking on the enforcement order until the appeal is heard.

Worst case scenario for The Hive is they may have to remove the current floodlights and amend the stand.

To comply with the enforcement on the floodlights they would need to replace the 25mtr columns with 15mtr ones. If they do this then neighbours really will have something to get upset about as the light will end up shining across the pitch and into their houses instead of pointing downwards.

The West Stand is 20mtrs narrower but 6mtrs taller than they already have approval for. To fix this the roof would come off, top half dozen seats removed and then the roof put back on. The whole stand is like giant meccano so this is definitely possible.

Both these things mean that even if they lose the appeal they can change the site to comply with the 2008 planning permission and the council will be unable to take further action. The planning officers report to the council stated that he saw no problem with the height of the floodlights or the size of the stand so the councilors decision is against the advice of their own planning officer.

Re: Hive planning appeal : Wed Mar 26, 2014 8:24 am  

Cheers for the clarification. Interesting times......